It was to be the first fully themed issue of The Modest Proposal, and the premise was simple: call attention to different "brewed" beverages, the assumption being that their production and consumption is integral to the reading of critical odds 'n ends. Whether it be the Americano habitually quaffed upon first checking the internet in the morning, the afternoon tea stubbornly taken out of duty, or the coveted after work, end-of-the-day beer, "brew" is essential. Sometimes strange, sometimes bubbling up inside of you, pretty much always part of the day.
Photo by Roshan Patel
The plans were ambitious. Interviews with industry practitioners, a look at the economics of fair trade, a round-up of pumpkin ales. Some of the initial ideas are intact, such as a review of a little book on the 17th century coffee shop, an analysis of Bob Dylan's choices for coffee and alcohol related listening, a review of a book on archaeological reconstruction and modern brew. As often happens, major life movements intervened. One writer started teaching an intensive course, another moved to Cambridge (across the pond), yet another started their own business.
Photo by Roshan Patel.
So, in place of what was to be an interpretive unity on the brewed beverage, a bit of that plus a few pieces on film. Adam Miller's timely exploration of Avatar (2009) brings something different to the table. Forget the pop reviews for a moment and take a look at its strange sense of history and politics. Miller watches the film as a guilty textual subject. What he finds is that the claims to the film's epoch-defining qualities are true (but not necessarily how you'd think). Joseph Maddrey provides a tandem book review, of works on two Western auteurs who become central to an American history of the genre. Maddrey is at work on his own history of the Western, and the review comes as an informed intervention into a contested genre territory. I've included a DVD review of Luis Buñuel's controversial masterpiece L'Age d'Or (1930), originally commissioned for Scarlet Street magazine but never run. Sadly, Scarlet Street editor Richard Valley passed away and the magazine ceased publication. However, it seems to have been reborn, with some of the same contributors but a slightly different twist, under the name Scarlet: The Film Magazine.
Enjoy this miscellaneous batch!
